iMovie exports are way too big

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Level 1

4 points

iMovie exports are way too big

I'm wondering why when I edit together 4 .mov clips that range between 9 MB and 73 MB that my edited movie exports as 2 GB???? This is infuriating. All I want to do is edit them together and, unless I want to drastically reduce the quality, the final result is enormous. Come on, Apple. You can do better than this. My research has basically recommended that I buy better editing software than to use Apple's terrible, amateur editing software. But the real kicker is that I've been using Apple's iMovie for years to edit videos and movies, and it's never been this aggravating. What the **** happened in the last year???

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Oct 2, 2020 4:27 AM

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Answer 1

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Ian R. Brown

Level 7

21,102 points

Oct 2, 2020 6:12 AM in response to vbarabas

It sounds as though you are exporting them using the Best (ProRes) setting.

This is only intended for specialised editing processes and produces files up to ten times bigger than necessary.

Instead select the High, Medium or Low settings.

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Answer 2

Oct 2, 2020 6:24 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Incidentally, the High, Medium and Low settings can be a bit misleading.

The "Low" setting will not necessarily give a lower quality video than the other settings.

"Low" refers to the bit rate which is much lower, giving very small file sizes.

Static or slow moving subjects will not be affected by a low bit rate.

However, if you have rapid movement, you may get some breakup of the image and pixellation caused by motion artefacts, in which case it is a matter of using Medium or High.

It's a case of suck it and see.

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iMovie exports are way too big

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